1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates generally to the field of pipes and tubing. More specifically, the present invention relates to pipes and tubing that include an embedded element/traceable element.
2. Description of Related Art
The pipes that are used in today's water and sewer mains are either polyvinyl chloride (commonly abbreviated PVC) or ductile iron. Once ductile iron is installed underground, it can be traced from the surface. There are two drawbacks with ductile iron. One, that it is difficult to obtain and two, it is more expensive than PVC pipe. These two reasons make it not the ideal pipe to be used in today's water and sewer mains. The majority of pipes that are used in today's water and sewer mains are made of PVC.
The PVC pipe that is installed in today's water and sewer mains by itself is non-detectable. Once the PVC pipe is installed and covered with dirt or concrete there is no way of locating the newly installed utility, which creates a realm of problems.
PVC piping is inexpensive but has the drawback that once installed there is no way that it can be traced from the surface. It is very important that installed pipe can be traced from the surface in case more work needs to be done in that location in the future and accurate as-built drawings are necessary. As-built drawings are vital to the municipalities since they serve to document where pipe has been installed.
Once pipe is laid it is traced from the surface using a metal detector. Presently, the current methods used to make these PVC pipes detectable from the surface are either to use duct tape to attach a detectable element to the outside of the pipe after it is installed or to place this detectable element in the ground, above the pipe.